Metro extension to Gurgaon delayed

NEW DELHI: The closure of the Delhi Airport Metro Express has indefinitely delayed the high-speed corridor's extension to the Millennium City. "Extension to Gurgaon is dependent on the Airport Metro Express. If a new player for the extension comes, managing the line with different concessionaires would be challenging," said Mangu Singh, Delhi Metro's managing director.

However, with R-Infra, the concessionaire for the Airport Metro Express, expressing a wish to bow out of the agreement, Singh admitted that the high speed extension to Gurgaon was on the back-burner. "We would prefer if the same concessionaire continues for the extension, though we will go through a transparent international bidding process," said Singh.

The extension has been in the works for some time. It had got the preliminary approval earlier last year. Completion of the link was expected by 2016. The stations proposed were Palam Vihar station and Maruti Udyog station. The 12km link was to reduce travel time from Dwarka to Gurgaon to as little as 12-14 minutes.

The new link would have been the second Metro corridor to enter Gurgaon. The existing line 2 (HUDA city center-Jehangirpuri) already carries over six lakh passengers everyday.

"The link will take a large chunk of the crowd off the Yellow line, as line 2 is called. The link will also provide connectivity to the existing line 2 - at IFFCO Chowk, as well as the Blue line or line 3, as the Dwarka-Noida/Vaishali line is known, at Dwarka Sector 21 station," said an official.

Meanwhile, the date for the safety audit of the Airport Metro is still awaited. The documents have been sent to the chief of metro rail safety, said officials.